Teutonic Knights Meet Shipyard Heroes in Berlin’s Poland Show
"Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus"
Muzeum Okregowe w Toruniu/Martin Gropius Bau via Bloomberg
"Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus" by an unknown artist. The work, which shows the astronomer at the age of 35-40, at an exhibition in Berlin called "Side by Side: Poland-Germany, 1,000 Years of Art and History.''
"Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus" by an unknown artist. The work, which shows the astronomer at the age of 35-40, at an exhibition in Berlin called "Side by Side: Poland-Germany, 1,000 Years of Art and History.'' Source: Muzeum Okregowe w Toruniu/Martin Gropius Bau via Bloomberg
Veit Stoss Sculpture
Victoria & Albert Museum/Martin Gropius Bau via Bloomberg
A boxwood sculpture by Veit Stoss, dating from about 1500, depicts the Virgin Mary with Jesus. The work is in an exhibition in Berlin about German-Polish history and relations
A boxwood sculpture by Veit Stoss, dating from about 1500, depicts the Virgin Mary with Jesus. The work is in an exhibition in Berlin about German-Polish history and relations Source: Victoria & Albert Museum/Martin Gropius Bau via Bloomberg
"Prussian Tribute"
Zamek Krolewski na Wawelu/Martin Gropius Bau via Bloomberg
"Prussian Tribute" (1882) by Jan Matejko. The work illustrates the oath of fealty sworn by Albert of the House of Brandenburg to the King of Poland. Albert was Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and later Duke of Prussia.
"Prussian Tribute" (1882) by Jan Matejko. The work illustrates the oath of fealty sworn by Albert of the House of Brandenburg to the King of Poland. Albert was Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and later Duke of Prussia. Source: Zamek Krolewski na Wawelu/Martin Gropius Bau via Bloomberg
The German capital is an hour’s drive from Poland, yet Berliners’ weekend jaunts are more likely to feature Paris, London or Vienna.
You occasionally hear of people dashing over the border at Frankfurt an der Oder for cheap cigarettes. An excursion to explore the countryside of Eastern Pomerania is rare.
So Poland had to come to Berlin, in an exhibition at the Martin Gropius Bau called “Side by Side: Poland-Germany, 1,000 Years of Art and History.” It encompasses 19 rooms and about 800 exhibits, and shows how entwined the two nations are.
Funded to the tune of 1 million euros ($1.36 million) by the German government and curated by Polish art historian Anda Rotteburg, the show is chiefly a diplomatic exercise. This hasn’t been the easiest of relationships.
It aims to highlight that for all their past differences, these neighbors are now getting on O.K., barring spats over gas pipelines and how to remember the expulsion of 12 million people from formerly German territories after World War II.
Still, any exhibition with such diplomatic significance is fraught with hazard. Poland’s moments of glory have tended to be German defeats, and vice versa.
Yet there’s no denying the German cultural influence on Poland -- from the imposing Gothic castle built by Knights of the Teutonic Order at Marienburg, now Malbork, to the sculptures of Nuremberg artist Veit Stoss (who takes up a whole room) -- in Cracow’s St. Mary’s Basilica.
Rotteburg makes no apologies for focusing on the Polish version of events. For a Berliner used to the German cultural narrative, it’s refreshing.
Mass Slaughter
Who, for example, remembers the 1410 Battle of Tannenberg, also called the Battle of Grunwald? It is a date every Pole knows. The battle witnessed the mass slaughter and defeat of the crusading Knights of the Teutonic Order at the hands of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Jan Matejko’s vast 1878 painting of it is the most famous national artwork, and pieces it has inspired are on show here. There’s also a model of the Cracow Tannenberg monument, depicting the victorious king at the top and the order’s fallen grandmaster at his feet. The monument was destroyed by the Nazis in 1939 and reconstructed in 1976.
Both Poland and Germany have claimed Nicolaus Copernicus. The astronomer was born in 1473 into a German-speaking family in Torun, now Poland, and is believed by historians to have spoken German, Latin and Polish with equal fluency. He also spoke Greek and Italian -- a Renaissance man and true European.
Watching Copernicus
Torun lent the best-known portrait of Copernicus for the show. The anonymous artist depicted him with gaunt cheeks, alert eyes following the viewer.
The last century of relations is illustrated mainly through art, with some historical documents. The German Foreign Office loaned its copy of the German-Polish non-aggression pact of 1934, under which the two countries pledged to eschew conflict for 10 years and to resolve their differences in negotiations.
Artists including Andrzej Wroblewski testify eloquently to the failure of that pact and the ensuing war, in which 6 million Poles died. His 1949 series of paintings, “Executions,” depicts Poles being shot by faceless Nazis.
Andrzej Wajda’s 1956 film “Kanal,” about the Warsaw Uprising, tells the story of resistance fighters escaping through the city’s sewers. Its images of the burned-out streetscapes above are unforgettable.
Ghetto Uprising
Since World War II the story has, thankfully, largely been one of reconciliation. Willy Brandt’s 1970 gesture, when he kneeled at the monument to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, put down by Nazi troops, is the most famous example. A Spiegel magazine cover asks whether he should have done it.
Culture Minister Bernd Neumann reminded guests at the opening that Germany has the heroes of the Gdansk shipyards to thank for reunification and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Klaus Staeck’s 1982 poster proclaims “Poland Is Not Yet Lost,” the first words of the national anthem. It shows the black waves of an ocean with a red ship, created from the word “Solidarnosc,” visible just above the horizon.
Poland is not lost, it has just temporarily relocated to Berlin.
“Side by Side: Poland -- Germany: 1,000 Years of Art and History” is on at Berlin’s Martin Gropius Bau through Jan. 9, 2012. For more information, go to http://www.gropiusbau.de.
(Catherine Hickley writes for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the reporter on the story: Catherine Hickley in Berlin at chickley@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
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